The “Pick Up the Club” cartoon by Russell Henderson was published in the American Issue – a Anti-Saloon League paper ¹ –  on January 4, 1919. The caption refers to the club with “American Anti-Saloon Methods” inscribed on it, and was aimed at “The [rest of the] World”. The World has “The Liquor Octopus”, and its tentacles of ‘crime’, ‘poverty’, ‘debauchery’, ‘waste’ and ‘disease’. I am not sure what the World is supposed to do with the club in order to dislodge the octopus: hit itself in the head with it? No wonder he looks bewildered.

Image Source:http://www.wpl.lib.oh.us/AntiSaloon/pmaterial/cartoons/ (Accessed: 15 Mar 2009)

Footnotes:

1. “American Issue Publishing House”, Wikipedia,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Issue_Publishing_House(Accessed: 19th Mar 2009)